Uganda Parliament Votes to Continue Anti-Homosexual Bill

Uganda’s parliament voted to reopen
a debate on a bill that seeks to outlaw homosexuality that may
be expanded to include the death penalty for gay people.

The legislation will be sent to the relevant session
committee for consideration, Speaker Rebecca Kadaga told
lawmakers today in a televised debate from the capital, Kampala.

In October 2009, Ugandan lawmaker David Bahati proposed the
Anti-Homosexuality Bill that sought the death penalty or life
imprisonment for gay people in the East African nation. The
proposal drew criticism from international and domestic civil-
society groups for infringing on human rights and equating
homosexuality with terrorism or treason.

Legislators on Uganda’s Legal and Parliamentary Affairs
Committee in the previous parliament suggested adding a clause
that would make it a criminal offense to perform same-sex
marriages, Human Rights Watch said in a statement on May 12.

The committee said in its report that the penalty of
“aggravated homosexuality” should be the same as defilement, a
crime that is punishable by death under the Penal Code Act.